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NOTES 



HISTORY OF WITCHCRAFT IN MASSACHUSETTS; 



WITH 



ILLUSTRATIVE DOCUMENTS. 



From Proceedings at the Annual Meeting of tiik American antiquarian Society, 
October 21, 1882. 



BY 

GEORGE H. MOORE 



WORCESTER, MASS., IT. S. A. 

PRINTED BY CHARLES HAMILTON 

No. 311 Main Street. 

1883. 



? 






NOTES. 



I desire to call attention to certain errors in the current history of 
Witchcraft in Massachusetts, and must ask your indulgence for ray 
inability to make these dry bones live in more pleasing forms. 

The first errors I note are in the statements — that there was no colonial 
or provincial law against witchcraft in force at the time of the witch- 
craft proceedings in 1692, in Massachusetts — that the prosecutions took 
place entirely under English law, that law being the statute of James I. — 
and that witchcraft was not a criminal offence at common law. It is 
probable that these errors may be traced mainly to Hutchinson, whose 
statements I quote. It should be remembered that Hutchinson was not 
originally bred to the profession of the law. 

He says (vol. ii., page 52) : "At the first trial there was no colony or 
provincial law against witchcraft in force. The statute of James the 
first must therefore have been considered in force in the provinces, 
witchcraft not being an offence at common law. Before the adjourn- 
ment the old colony law, which makes witchcraft a capital offence, was 
revived, with the other local laws, as they were called, and made a law 
of the province." Again (p. 59), " The general court also showed their 
zeal against witchcraft by a law passed in the words of the statute of 
James the first, * * * * If the court was of opinion that the stat- 
ute extended here, I see no necessity of a provincial act exactly in the 
same words ; if the statute did not extend here, I know not by what law 
the first that was tried could be sentenced to death." 

With reference to the same period, and the same proceedings, George 
Chalmers said : " What reflects disgrace on the province, it was then 
doubtful, but is now certain, that there existed no law in Massachusetts 
for putting supposed witches to death." Cont. Polit. Ann. : Coll. N. Y. 
Hist. Soc. 1868: p. 111. 

Hutchinson was a loyal son of Massachusetts, but Chalmers felt 
pleasure in this severe and unjust reflection upon the people of that 
province. From the earliest period there had never been any lack of 
law against witchcraft in England. Blackstone found the "antient 
books " of the law full of this " offence against God and religion." He 



adds " the civil law punishes with death not only the sorcerers them- 
selves, but also those who consult them, imitating in the former the 
express law of God, 'thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.' And our 
own laws, both before and since the conquest, have been equally penal; 
ranking this crime in the same class with heresy, and condemning both 
to the flames." Comm. iv., 60. 

I suppose Hutchinson's error arose in part from the following pass- 
age in Hale's History of the Pleas of the Crown : "If a man either by 
working upon the fancy of another, or possibly by harsh or unkind 
usage puts another into such a passion of grief or fear, that the party 
either dies suddenly, or contracts some disease, whereof he dies, tho* 
as the circumstances of the case may be, this may be murder or man- 
slaughter in the sight of God, yet in foro humano it cannot come under 
the judgment of Felony, because no external act of violence was offered 
whereof the common law can take notice, and secret things belong to 
God ; and hence it was, that before the statute of 1 Jac. Cap. 12, witch- 
craft or fascination was not felony, because it wanted a trial, though 
some constitutions of the civil law make it penal." Hist. P. C, Cap. 33, 
J. 429. 

See Barrington's reference to this : Observations on the Statutes, p. 528, 
"Hist. P. C, iv., 429," in which he explains that the proof of allegations of 
witchcraft is "attended with infinite difficulty. Lord C. J. Hale for this 
reason informs us that 1 James I., Cap. 12 (which makes it felony to kill 
any person by the invocation of an evil spirit), was occasioned by there 
being no external appearance of violence which might make it criminal 
by the common law, though the offence was punished with death by the 
Romans." 

" Plato saith well the strongest of all authorities is, if a man can 
allege the authority of his adversary against himself." Bacon : Case of 
the Post Nati. We have the authority of Lord Chief Justice Coke and 
Chief Justice Hale himself for the statement that witchcraft, as a capi- 
tal offence immediately against the Divine Majesty, at common law, 
was punished with death, as heresy. Coke : 3 Inst., Cap. vi. Hale : P. 

a, pp. 3, 6. 

The declaration of heresy, and likewise the proceedings and judgment 
upon hereticks, were by the common law of the realm referred to the 
ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and the seculararm was reached to them by the 
common law, and not by any statute for the execution of them which 
was by the King's writ de haeretico comburendo. Bacon's Cases of Trea- 
son : Chap. xiii. Harl. Misc. v. 20. 

Before the statute 2 Henry IV., Cap. 15, no person could be convicted 
of heresy, but by the archbishop, and all the clergy of the province ; 
but, by that statute, any particular bishop might in his diocese convict 
of heresy, and issue forth his precept to the sheriff, to burn the person 
he had convicted, a law whereby the clergy gained a dominion over the 
lives of the subjects, independent upon the crown. It was repealed by 



the statute 25 Henry VIII., Cap. 14. But so as particular bishops might 
still convict ; though without the king's writ de haeretico comburendo, 
first obtained, no person convicted could be put to death, and so the law 
stood until . . . [1677.] Harleian Misc. viii. 70. 

" Under the general name of heresy there hath been in ordinary speech 
comprehended three sorts of crimes: 1. Apostacy. ... 2. Witchcraft, 
Bortilegium, was by the antient laws of England of ecclesiastical cogniz- 
ance and upon conviction thereof without abjuration, or relapse without 
abjuration, was punishable with death by writ de haeretico comburendo, 
vide Co. P. C, Cap. 6, et libros ibi, Extf de haereticis Cap. 8, § 5, n. 6. 
3. Formal heresy . . ." Hale : P. C. i. 383. Hawkins, P. C. Cap. 
III. 2. All these [including those guilty of witchcraft] were anciently 
punished in the same manner as hereticks, by the writ de haeretico com- 
burendo, after a sentence in the ecclesiastical court and a relapse. And 
it is said also that they might be condemned to the pillory, &c, upon an 
indictment at common law. 3 Inst. 44, F. N. B. 269. S. P. C. 38. 
Croke, Eliz. 571. 

Fitzherbert, in his Natura Brevium, says in a note: "It appeareth by 
Britton in his book, that those persons shall be burnt who feloniously 
burn other's corn, or other's houses, and also those who are sorcerers or 
sorceresses; and sodomite* and heretics shall be burnt; and it appeared 
by that book, lib. L, cap. 17, that such was the common law." Natura 
Brevium, 269. 

A reference to Britton amply sustains this ancient oracle of the 
common law : "Let inquiry also be made of those who feloniously in time 
of peace have burnt others' corn or houses, and those who are attainted 
thereof shall be burnt, so that they may be punished in like manner as 
they have offended. The same sentence shall be passed upon sorcerers, 
sorceresses, renegades, sodomites, and heretics publicly convicted." 
Britton: Lib. I., Cap. X. 

The learned editor of Britton says: "It seems as to these offences, 
though the King's court was in general ancillary to the ecclesiastical 
tribunal, it sometimes acted independently." And he cites a contempo- 
rary MS. that "if the King by inquest find any person guilty of such 
horrible sin, he may put them to death, as a good marshall of 
Christendom." Compare also Britton, lib. 1, cap. xvi sect. 6, and chap. 
xxx. sect. 3. 

I am well aware that the King's Writ did never run in Massachusetts ; 
but Law and History alike will sustain the assertion that the Fathers of 
Massachusetts never failed in their duty, if they knew it, " as good 
raarshalls of Christendom." 

Four years before it was abolished by the Statute of 29 Ch. ii., there 
was a debate in the House of Lords concerning taking away the Writ 
De haeretico comburendo. The discussion plainly shows that it was well 
known as a writ in the Register, and before 2 Henry V., in which 
time the Statute against Lollards was made, and put in execution against 



them and that the icrit icas, before that time, a Writ at Common Law.* 
The Bishop and Ecclesiastical Power were Judges of Heresy, who, upon 
condemnation of the party, delivered him up to the secular Power; and 
the Writ Be haeretico comburendo was thereupon issued out. It was 
declared in Parliament that the writ was still in force at Common Law, 
and the same power in the Clergy, notwithstanding the Statute of Queen 
Elizabeth of the thirty-nine Articles, and the Statute of Heresy, so that 
if they fell into the misfortune of Catholic Governors and Clergy, as in 
the Marian days, that writ was still in force, and might be put in 
execution. 

The Act for taking away this writ was passed four years afterwards, 
29 Charles II., 1677, declaring " that the writt commonly called Breve de 
heretico comburendo, with all Processe and Proceedings thereupon in 
order to the executeing such writt or following or depending thereupon 
and all punishment by death in pursuance of any Ecclesiastical Censures 
be from henceforth utterly taken away and abolished." 

But the abolition of the law and process for burning heretics did not 
finish or do away with the legal penalties for witchcraft. 

It was declared felony by Statute 33, H. VIII. c. 8. [1541-2] which 
was repealed by the operation of the Statute 1 Edward VI., c. 12. 
Again declared felony by Statute 5 Elizabeth, c. 16, it was only more 
accurately defined by the Statute Jac. I., c. 12, by which the previous 
statute was also repealed. This law, which was <{ enacted (as Mr. 
Bancroft says) by a House of Commons in which Coke and Bacon were 
the guiding minds, " continued to disgrace the English statute book 
until 1736. By it the Invoking or Consulting with Evil Spirits, taking 
up Dead Bodies, &c, for purposes of witchcraft, &c, or practising 
Witchcraft, &c, to the harm of others, was declared Felony without 
Clergy. It also imposed penalties on declaring by Witchcraft where 
Treasure, &c, is hidden; procuring unlawful love; or attempting to 
hurt Cattle or Persons : for the first offence a year's Imprisonment and 
Pillory ; for the second, that of Felony, without Clergy. 

The original Body of Liberties of the Massachusetts Colony in New 
England made Witchcraft a capital offence. This article follows 
immediately after the provision for the punishment of idolatry, which 
is the first article of the capital code. 

" 2. If any man or woman be a witch (that is hath or consulteth with 
a familiar spirit) 2 they shall be put to death." 

It is fortified by scriptural authorities in the margin — viz : by 
references to Exodus 22: 18; Leviticus 20: 27; Deuteronomy 18: 10; 



Harrington says (p. 126) there is no legal argument which hath such 
force, in our courts of law, as those which are drawn from ancient writs ; 
and the Eegistrum Brevium is therefore looked upon to be the very 
foundation of the common law. St. 13 Edw. I. Statute of Westminster 
the Second. 

2 This legal, definition of a witch seems to have been adhered to 
throughout the examinations and proceedings at Salem in 1692. 



and continued without modification through the whole period of the 
government under the first charter, appearing in all the editions of the 
laws which have been preserved. 

The contemporary code, drawn up by John Cotton, printed in London 
in 1641, and long supposed to have been the actual "laws of New 
England as established," gives the same prominence to witchcraft in the 
chapter of crimes. After blasphemy and idolatry, comes 

"3. Witchcraft which is fellowship by covenant with a familiar 
spirit, to be punished with death. 

"4. Consulters with Witches not to be tolerated, but either to be 
cut off by death, or by banishment." 

His authorities from Scripture are Exodus 22 : 18; Leviticus 20 : 27, 
and 19 : 31. 

This alternative penalty of banishment, "the consulters with witches " 
shared with "scandalous livers" and "revilers of religion." Those 
who reviled the church establishment. of Massachusetts came under the 
latter description. 

The laws of the colony of New Plymouth, in 1636, enumerated among 
"capitall offences lyable to death," as the third in order after treason 
or rebellion, and murder, " solemn compaction or conversing with the 
divell by way of witchcraft, conjuration or the like." 

By the revision of 1671, this law appears to have been modified. The 
eighth section of chapter II., Capital Laws, provides that "if any 
Christian (so called) be a Witch, that is, hath, or consulteth with a 
familiar Spirit; he or they shall be put to death." This qualification of 
"Christianity " (so called) " was probably a saving clause for the Indian 
inhabitants of the territory within the jurisdiction of the colony. The 
Indians had been always regarded as worshippers of the Devil, and their 
Powwows as wizards. 

From the date of the judgment in the King's Bench, by which the 
Colonial Charter was cancelled, Massachusetts was governed by a Royal 
Commission until, in 1689, the news of the English revolution produced 
an insurrection at Boston, in which the Royal Governor was deposed, 
and the "antient Charter" and its constitutions de facto resumed. During 
this period, the Royal Commission and Instructions established the 
government " according to such reasonable laws and statutes as are 
now in force or such others as shall hereafter be made and established 
within our territory and dominion aforesaid." And the King declared 
his royal will and pleasure to be " that all lawes, statutes and ordinances 
[therein] * * * shall continue and be in full force and vigor," 
excepting such as might be in conflict with the Governor's Commission 
and Instructions, <&c. 

On the 22d June, 1689, after the deposition of Andros, " at the Con- 
vention of the Governor «and Council and Representatives of -the 
Massachusetts Colony, it was declared that all the laws made by the 
Governor and Company of said colony that were in force on the 12th 



8 

day of May, 1686 (except any that are repugnant to the laws of England) 
are the laws of this colony, and continue in force till farther settlement, 
to which all inhabitants and residents here are to give due obedience." 
3 : Hutch. Papers, 372, in M. H. S. Lib., quoted by Gray in Reports IX. 517. 

Under this temporary settlement of the laws, the authorities in 
Massachusetts did not hesitate to exercise the highest judicial powers 
and even to inflict capital punishment ; taking the highest steps in the 
administration of government, by trying, condemning, and executing 
some notorious criminals found guilty of piracies and murder. Brad- 
street to Increase Mather, 29 January, 1689. Hutch. Papers, 576. 

Chief Justice Shaw stated very clearly the doctrine which has always 
prevailed : " We take it to be a well settled principle, acknowledged by 
all civilized states governed by law, that by means of a political revolu- 
tion, by which the political organization is changed, the municipal laws, 
regulating their social relations, duties and rights, are not necessarily 
abrogated." Commonwealth v. Chapman, 13 Metcalf, 71. 

Nor should it be forgotten here that the^ validity of the judgment 
against the Charter in 1684, which was cledtaecl. by the House of Com- 
mons, and " questioned by very great authority in England," was never 
admitted in Massachusetts. 9 Gray, 517. As there was nothing in the 
repeal of the Colony Charter to affect the private rights of the colonists, 
9 Gray, 518, so generally the rights of the inhabitants, as well as the 
penalties to which they might be subjected, continued to be determined 
by the effect and according to the form Of the colonial and provincial 
legislation, i. e. the common law of Massachusetts, rather than by the 
ancient common law of England. 5 Pickering, 203. 7 Gushing, 76-77. 
13 Pickering, 208. 13 Metcalf, 68-72. 

I may be permitted also, at this point, to state a fact which fso far 
as I know) has escaped attention entirely in all the later discussions of 
this topic : that it was deemed necessary by the Legislature of this 
Commonwealth, to pass an act as late as the year 1824, for the repeal of 
a law of the Colony passed in 1660 P 

Thus far legislation under the Colony Charter. On the arrival of 
Phips with the Province Charter, the change which was made was 
scarcely perceptible, almost the same men continued in power, the 



^HAP. CLXIII. 

An Act to repeal an Act, entitled "An Act Against 
S elf-Murder." 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General 
Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, That an Act eutitled 
" an Act against self-murder," passed in the year of our Lord one 
thousand six hundred and sixty, and providing that the bodies of per- 
sons who shall be guilty of self-murder shall be buried in some public 
highway, be, and the same is hereby repealed. 

[Approved by the Governor, February 21st, 1824.] 



laws and customs of former times remained, and the spirit of the 
people had undergone little alteration. 

The provincial legislature met for the first time on the 8th of June, 
1692. Proceedings and examinations upon charges of witchcraft had 
been going on for several months before ; the special court of Oyer and 
Terminer had been organized on the 27th of May, and sat, on the 2d of 
June, for the trial of its first victim, whose death warrant, signed on the 
very clay the legislature came together, was executed two clays after- 
wards. 

One of the first acts of the Great and General Court, passed on the 
15th of June, 1692, was to continue all the local laws of the former gov- 
ernments of Massachusetts Bay and New Plymouth, being not repug- 
nant to the laws of England, nor inconsistent with the new constitution 
and settlement by the Province Charter — to stand in force till Novem- 
ber 10th, in the same year. 

This was that "Greatest General Court that ever was in New Eng- 
land," in the early part of whose session (June 9th), Increase Mather 
appeared and gave an account of his doings as Agent of the Colony at 
London. 

On the 29th of October they passed an act for the punishing of capital 
offenders, in which Witchcraft maintains jts old position in the list of 
Capital Crimes, being declared to be felony, of which persons legally 
convicted were to be "adjudged to suffer the Pains of Death." The 
text is the same as that of the former law, but the scriptural authorities 
are omitted. The description of what constitutes a witch, furnished a 
legal definition of the crime. This law was subsequently disallowed in 
England by reason of the Articles relating to Witchcraft, Blasphemy, 
Incest, and slaying by Devilish Practice, which were declared by the 
Privy Council to be "conceived in very uncertain and doubtful terms," 
etc. Letter from the Privy Council, 26 Dec. 1695. 

Before the end of the same session, on the 14th December, 1692, the 
General Court of Massachusetts reinforced their own local law by the 
substantial re-enactment of the English Statute. 

This "Act against Conjuration, Witchcraft, and dealing with Evil and 
Wicked Spirits," is expressly declared in the preamble to be "for more 
particular direction in the Execution of the Law against Witchcraft." 
The original Bill is preserved among the Archives in the State House at 
Boston, with such changes by way of correction as indicate the design of 
its promoters still more clearly. "For Explanation [or Explication] of 
the Law against Witchcraft, and more particular direction therein, the 
execution thereof, and for the better restraining the said offences, and 
more severely punishing the same," etc. Mass. Archives. This phrase- 
ology shows conclusively that they had previously been proceeding upon 
their own or the common law, for if they had been guided by the statute 
of James I., they needed not to re-enact it, for particular direction, or to 
increase the severity of punishment. 



10 

The foe-simile given in the Memorial History of Boston, Vol II., 153, 
does not indicate this important feature in the original, and the error to 
which I call attention is reiterated there in the statement that "the 
witches had been tried without any Colony or Province Law on the sub- 
ject, and presumably under the English statute of James I." Ibid. 154. 

Mr. Bancroft, in his exhaustive and most able discussion of this 
topic, states that the General Court adopted the English law, "word for 
word as it stood in the English Statute Book," but the differences 
between the original statute and that of Massachusetts are consider- 
able, and characteristic, even when notvery important, which some of 
them certainly are. 1 

In the enacting clause, "the Governor, Council, and ^Representatives 
in General Court assembled" take the place of "the King our Sovereign 
Lord, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons in parliament 
assembled." 

The denial of "the privilege and benefit of Cleargie and Sanctuarie" 
to persons convicted, which is a conspicuous feature in the English law 
is omitted in that of Massachusetts. 

"The Markett Town, upon the Market Day, or at such tyme as any 
Faire shall be kept there," as the place of exposure and confession upon 
the pillory four times during the year's imprisonment, finds its substi- 
tute in "some Shire town" of Massachusetts, where it was also required 
in addition, that the "offence shall be written in Capital Letters, and 
placed upon the Breast of the Offender." 

A much more important omission was that which excluded the pro- 
visions for saving of Dower, Inheritance, Succession, &c, as well as 
the proviso that " Peers shall be tried by Peers." The want of agree- 
ment with the English statute, "whereby the Dower was saved to y e 
Widow and y e Inheritance to y e heir of y e party convicted" is expressly 
mentioned in the letter of the Privy Council to the Governor, &c, of the 
Province, 26th December, 1695, as the reason for its repeal. 
^j<U r &fie rights of heirs had akj e been saved in the previous statute of the 
same session — "An Act setting forth General Priviledges" — which provided, 
that they should not be defeated by any forfeitures for crime, except in 
cases of high treason. This saving applied only to "lands and heritages," 
so that goods and chattels might be forfeited in cases of felony. This 
act met a similar fate at the hands of the Privy Council, as being repug- 
nant to the laws of England. 

-¥efr<Jhe laws of Massachusetts from the beginning had preserved the 



! Mr. Bancroft was evidently misled by Hutchinson, as quoted ante, p. 
162. The passage in the first edition of the History of the United States, is 
as follows : "The General Court adopted what King William rejected — 
the English law. word for word as it stood in the English Statute Book." 
Edition 1840, iii., 95. As subsequently revised for the centenary edi- 
tion, it stands "the English law, word for word, as it was enacted by a 
House of Commons, in which Coke and Bacon were the guiding minds." 
Edition 1876, ii., 265. 



11 

rights of heirs by the entire exemption of lands and heritages from 
" forfeitures, upon the deaths of parents or Ancestors, be they naturall, 
casuall or Juditiall." Body of Liberties, Art. 10. Under this law of the 
colony, traitors as well as other felons might dispose of their estates, 
real and personal, by will, after sentence, and if they died intestate, dis- 
tribution was made, as in other cases. In 1678, the Attorney General 
of England objected to this feature of the colonial law as repugnant to 
the laws of England, to which the General Court replied that they con- 
ceived it to be according to their patent; and "its originall, viz 1 that of 
East Greenwitch, according unto which, as we conceive, notwithstanding 
the father's crime, yet the children are to possesse the estate." Mass. 
Bee, v., 199. 

I have thus shown that, whatever may be the estimate placed upon the 
proceedings of the authorities against alleged witches, the disgrace does 
not attach to them of having acted without warrant of law. In point 
of fact a popular devotion to law that was fanatical, was an influence 
second only to their fidelity to religious conviction, among the moving 
causes of the witch delusion. Palfrey, iv., 130. 

Another error has been constantly repeated in the statement that no 
lawyer was engaged in the proceedings. Gov. Washburn said there was 
not a lawyer concerned in the proceedings of the court. Judicial Hist., 
p. 145. And Mr. Chandler in his Criminal Trials followed the Governor 
somewhat literally. He says — "it was a popular tribunal; there was 
not a lawyer concerned in its proceedings." Am. Crim. Trials, i., 92. 
And again — "Neither is the common law,nor are its professors responsible 
for their mistaken proceedings. The special court of Oyer and Terminer 
was essentially a popular tribunal. There was not a regular lawyer 
concerned in its proceedings." lb., 137. Mr. Palfrey confirms this 
statement of the case : " there were no trained lawyers in the province." 
Hist. N~. E., iv., 120. And the statement has been generally accepted. 
But it is not true. In the original constitution of the court — on Friday, 
the 27th May, 1(392, Mr. Thomas Newton was appointed to officiate as at- 
torney for and on behalf of their Majesties at the special court of Oyer 
and Terminer. He took the oath before Stoughtou, June 2, in open 
court at Salem, and continued to act until 26th July, when he was suc- 
ceeded in that service by Anthony Checkley, who had been previously 
employed in that office, and who continued in the same position for 
several years after the witchcraft trials had passed by. 

Newton was an Englishman by birth, bred a lawyer, and appears to 
have come to Boston in 1688, when he is noticed in a contemporary 
diary as a new-comer and sworn an attorney. Edward Randolph had 
represented to Mr. Povey of the English Board of Trade a year or two 
before "the want of two or three honest attorneys, if [there be] any 
such thing in nature," and Newton probably came under that encourage- 
ment. He was Attorney General in New York in 1691, and prosecuted 
Leisler, Milborne and others in the trials for high treason in that year— 



12 

returning to Boston, however, very soon after those trials were over. 
It is a curious fact never before noticed which thus connects the 
judicial murders of Leisler and Milborne in New York, with those of the 
alleged witches at Salem. 

It is hardly less remarkable that a brother of the same Milborne, an 
Anabaptist minister who had been conspicuous in the proceedings 
against Audros and Randolph, and evidently one of the leaders of the 
popular party, was arrested and held to bail by the government of 
Phips, apparently because he had appealed to the Assembly against 
these very proceedings in the witchcraft cases. 1 

I have not time in this place to give details of the career of Newton as 



1 ■« June 25, 1692. There being laid before his Excellency and Council 
two papers directed unto the Assembly one of them subscribed by 
William Milborne of Boston, and several others, containing very high 
reflections upon the administration of public justice within this their 
Majesty's Province, the said William Milborne was sent for, and upon 
examination owned that the said papers were of his writing, and that 
he subscribed his name to one of them. 

"Ordered to be committed to prison or give bond of £200 with two 
sureties to appear at next Superior Court to answer for framing, con- 
triving, writing and publishing the said seditious and scandalous papers 
or writings, and in the meantime to be of good behaviour." Council 
Becords. 

The following document is evidently a part of the same proceedings : 

"To the Sheriff of the County of Suffolke. 
"By his Excellency the Govern r . 

" These are in their Ma ties name to will and require you forthwith to 
take into yo r custody the Body of William Milborne of Boston, and to 
cause him to make his appearance before myselfe and Council to answer 
what shall bee objected against him on their Ma ties behalf for writing, 
framing, contriving and Exhibiting under his hand, with the names of 
several others, a scandalous and seditious paper containing very high 
reflections upon their Ma ties Government of this their Ma ties Province of 
the Massachusetts Bay in New England. Inscribed to the Grave and 
Judicious Members of the General Court for the said Province. Hereof 
fail not and make Return of this Precept with your doings therein. 
Given under my hand and seal at Boston the 25th of June, 1692. 

William Phips." 
Mass. Archives, cvi., 372. 

Edwaid Randolph, writing from the "Common Gaole" in Boston the 
29th of May, 1689, says : " Five Ministers of Boston, viz 1 . Moode, Allen, 
Young, Mather, Willard and Milborne, an Anabaptist Minister, were in 
the Council Chamber on the eighteenth of Aprill when the Govern 1 
[Andros] and myselfe were brought out of the Fort before thein, write- 
ing orders, and were authors of some of their printed papers." JV. Y. 
Coll. MSN., ili . , 582. And a letter of Colonel Bayard, from Albany. 23d 
September, 1689, speaks of Jacob Milborne as a "brother to Milbum 
the Anabaptist preacher," Qic. lb., 621. See also Bullivant's Diary in 
Proc. M. H. 8., March, 1878. "The Northend men, headed by Sir 
William Phips, Milboume and Way, apply to the Deputies for the dis- 
charge of Turell and White in execution for a just debt," etc. 18 
March, 1689-90. 



13 

a lawyer, but his obituary in the " Boston News Letter" of June, 1721 r 
speaks of him as "having been for many years one of the chief lawyers 
of Boston." 

And here I may remark in passing that notwithstanding the extreme 
sensitiveness of Massachusetts writers of history on this subject — if Eng- 
lish law, English judges or English lawyers are to be taken as standard* 
of comparison, I can see no necessity to apologize for those of Massa- 
chusetts in that clay and generation. "Simeon and Levi are breth- 
ren ; INSTRUMENTS OF CRUELTY ARE IN THEIR HABITATIONS." Gen. 49 : 5. 

The first conspicuous sign of recovery from this awful delusion and 
earliest public demonstration of the strong and certain reaction which 
had slowly set in, was the Fast of 1696-7. A proposition for a Fast and 
Convocation of Ministers had been made as early as October, 1692, but 
it did not receive the sanction of the Council. 

[Mass. Archives,] xi., 70. 

" Whereas it hath pleased the Most High out of Sovereign and holy 
will, in this Day of Try all and Adversity, to Exercise his people with 
sore trouble and Affliction in clivers Respects ; more Especially in per- 
mitting the Grand Enemy of Mankind to prevaile so far, with great 
Rage, and Serpentine Subtilty; whereby severall persons have been 
Seduced, and drawn away into that horrid and most Detestable sin of 
Witchcraft ; to the great vexation, and Amazeing affliction of many per- 
sons w ch is Notoriously known beyond Expression ; And That for the 
Due derserved punishment of the Nocent, clearing the Reputation, & 
persons of the Inocent, and by Divine Assistance in the use of meanes 
to prevent the. farther progress and prevailence of those Satanicall 
Delutions ; a Speciall Comission hath been granted to Certaine Gen- 
tlemen of the Council, and thereby a Court Errected by those persons of 
known Integrity, faithfullness and (according to man) Sufficiency who 
have Strenuously Endeavored to Discharge their Duty to the utmost of 
their Power for the finding out and Exterpation of that Diabollicall 
Evill : so much prevaileing amongst us, But finding (Notwithstanding the 
Indefatigable Endeavors of those Worthy Gentlemen with others to 
Suppress that Crying Enormity) the most Astonishing Augmentation, 
and Increase of the Number of Persons Accused, by those Afflicted : 
many of whom (according to the Judgment of Charity) being persons 
of good Conversation Godliness and honiesty; And on the Other hand 
severall persons have Come and Accused themselves before Authority, 
and by many Circumances, confessed themselves Guilty of that most 
abominable Wickedness ; with clivers Other Strang & Unaccountable 
Occurrances of this Nature through the Rage and malice of Sathan, great- 
ly threatening the utter Ruine and Distinction of this poor Country; if 
the Lord in his Tender Mercy, cloth not Wonderfully Appear for y e Sal- 
vation of his People : by Expelling those Dismall Clouds of Darkness, 
and Discovering the wiles of the Devil, and that mistry of Iniquity that 
doth so much abound; and by his Gracious guidance, and Divine assist- 
ance; Direct his people in the Right way, that those That are guilty 
may be found out, and brought to Condigne punishment, the Inocent 
may be Cleared, and our feares and troubles Removed. 

"To w ch End, it is humbly Proposed by the Representatives now 
Assembled, That a Generall Day of Humilliation may be Appointed, 
Sollemnly to Seek the Lord and to Implore his Ayd. That he would be 
graciously pleased to Shew unto his people What they Ought to doe at 



14 

such a time as this; And that A Convocation of the Elders may be 
called who with the Hon bU ' Council and Other persons, (whom they in 
their wisdoms shall deem meet) may Seriously Consider the Premisses ; 
and make Inspection into these Intricacies humbly Enquiring that they 
may Know the mind of God in this Difficult Case; That so if it be his 
Blessed Will, all dissatisfaction may be Removed, peace, love, and 
Unity may be increased and Continued amongst us, and that y e Gracious 
Presence of Our Blessed God may Remaine with us. 

* c Octob' : 26 : 92 : This Bill read a first second & third time in y e house 
of Representatives & voted passed in y e Affirmative & Sent to his 
Excellency the Gouerno* & Councill, for Consent. 

William Bond. Speaker. 



"Endorsed. Read once since returned by y e Committe, Motion for 
a Convocation 1692." 

Chief Justice SewalPs entry in his diary of this date throws some 
light on this Bill : 

" Oct. 26, 1692. A Bill is sent in about calling a Fast, and Convoca- 
tion of Ministers, that may be led in the right way as to the Witchcrafts. 
The reason and maner of doing it, is such, that the Court of Oyer and 
Terminer count themselves thereby dismissed. 29 Nos and 33 yeas to 
the Bill. Capt. Bradstreet and Lieut. True, Wm. Huchins and several 
other interested persons there, in the affirmative." 

Hutchinson tells us that : — " The winter of 1696 was as cold as had 
been known from the first arrival of the English; slays and loaded sleds 
passing great part of the time upon the ice from Boston as far as 
Nantasket. Greater losses in the trade had never been known than 
what were met with in this year; nor was there, at any time after the 
first year, so great a scarcity of food; nor was grain ever at a higher 
price." History of Mass., II., 104, note. 

The province had long languished under a war with the French and 
Indians, by which the estates of the people were much exhausted and 
many led into captivity or slain. Their trade had decayed and their 
population diminished by emigration to other colonies less exposed to 
the calamities of war and the burdens of taxation which it imposes. 
Information of all these disastrous events was the burden of letters to 
England towards the end of the year 1696. 

Under these circumstances a Committee of Religion was chosen by 
the House of Representatives of Massachusetts in which some of the 
clergy of the neighborhood were joined with the deputies, who prepared 
a Declaration enumerating Sundry Evills to be confessed on a Publick 
Day of Humiliation therein proposed. This is "the Declaration as 
drawn by the Deputies, with the assistance of the Ministers, but received 
a Non concurrence," referred to by Robert Calef in his " More Wonders," 
in his letter to the Ministers, Jan. 12, 1696. 

The document is still extant, though unpublished, in the handwriting 
of Cotton Mather — and is eminently characteristic of the man and the 



15 

times. I will read from it only the passage which refers directly to the 
Salem tragedies : 

[From Mass. Archives, xi., 120.] 

" Inasmuch as the Holy God, hath been, by Terrible and Various 
Dispensations of His Providence for many sevens of Years Together, 
most Evidently Testifying His Displeasure against us; and these 
Humbling Dispensations of Heaven have proceeded from One Degree of 
Calamity upon us to another, Wherein God hath vexed us with all 
Adversity, until at last the Symptoms of an Extreme Desolation 
Threaten us : A More than Ordinary Humiliation of this whole people, 
accompanied with fervent Supplications, and thorough Reformations, 
must bee acknowledged Necessary, to prepare us for o' Deliverance, 
from o r most unhappy circumstances. 

" Tis to bee Confessed, and it hath been often Confessed, That the 
people of this land in a long Increasing Apostasy from that Religious 
Disposition, that signalized the first planting of these Colonies, and 
from y r very Errand unto this wilderness, have with multiplied provoca- 
tions to the Almighty, sinned exceedingly. 

" The Spirit of This World hath brought almost an Epidemicall Death 
upon y e spirit of serious, and powerful Religion. 

" The Glorious Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, here enjoy'd with 
much plenty as well as purity, hath not been Thankfully, and Fruitfully, 
Entertained, by those who have been Blessed with the Joyful Sound. 

" The Covenant of Grace, recognized in o r Churches hath been by 
multitudes not submitted unto; and of them that have made a profession 
of submission unto it, very many have not walked according to the 
sacred obligations thereby laid upon them. 

"A Flood of Excessive Drinking, w th Incentives thereto hath begun to 
overwhelm Good Order, in some Townes & Even to Drown civiiitie 
itself. 

"Some English, by selling of Strong Drink unto Indians, have not 
only prejudiced the Designs of Christian itie, but also been the faulty 
and Bloody occasions of Death among them. 

"The most unreasonable Impieties of Rash and vain Swearing, with 
Hellish Cursing, on the mouths of some, have rendered them Guilty 
Sinners. 

" A Vanity in Apparrel, hath been affected by many, whose Glory 
hath bin their Shame. . 

" The Lords- Day, hath been disturbed, with so many profanations, 
that wee may not wonder, if the land see no Best. 

"The Wofnl Decay of all Good Family Discipline hath opened the 
Flood-gates for evils Innumerable, & almost Irremediable. 

" Wicked Sorceries have been practised in the land; and, in the late 
inexplicable storms from the Invisible world thereby brought upon us, wee 
were left, by the Just Hand of Heaven unto those Errors whereby Great 
Hardships were brought upon Innocent persons, and (wee fearej Guilt 
incur fd, which wee have all cause to Bewayl, with much confusion of o r Face 
before the Lord. 

"It is commonly and credibly Reported, That some, who have 
belonged unto this country, have committed very Detestable Pyracies 
in other parts of this world. 

"The Sins of Uncleanness in many, & y e Grossest Instances, have 
Defiled the land. 

" The Joy of Harvest hath too much forgotten y e Glad Service of 
God. when Hee hath given us, an Abundance of all Things. 



" Much Fraud hath been used in the Dealings of many, and mutual 
ami multiplied Oppressions, have made a cry. 

"Magistrates, Ministers, and others that have served the publick have 
been great Sufferers by their services, and mett with Unrighteous 
Discou ragements. 1 

[Y 1 Irreverence to Superiors in age & authority & disobedience to 
parents is too frequent among us. Parents not keeping up their 
authority in their families, Neglects in the Administration of Justice 
impartially and duly in Courts of Justice is too Obvious in this Land. 
Voted, 10* h Dec 1 ".] 2 

"Falsehood and Slander, hath been continually carrying of Darts thro' 
y e Land. 

"And the successive and Amazing Judgments of God, which have 
come upon us for such things as these, have not Eeclaimed us, but wee 
have gone on still in o r Iniquities. 

" For these Causes this whole people is Admonished uow to Humble 
themselves before the Lord with Repeted Acts of Repentance; and 
particularly, To this purpose, It is Ordered, That Thursday be kept 

as a Day of HUMILIATION, by prayer with FASTING, before the God 
of Heaven, in the several Congregations throughout this province; and 
all Servile labor on y e Day is hereby Inhibited : That so wee may obtain, 
thro' the Blood of the Lord JESUS CHBIST, the Pardon, both of these 
Iniquities and of whatever other secret sins the Lord may have sett in the 
Light of His Countenance. And, that wee may Implore y e Effusions of 
y e Spirit of Grace from on High, upon all ranks of men, and especially 
upon the Rising Generation, whereby o 1 " Turn to God, y e Fire of whose 
wrath is dreadfully consuming o r young men, may bee accomplished. 

" And it is hereby further signified, That it is hoped, the pastors of thfr 
churches, will, in their several charges, by private as well as public 
Applications, Endeavour to prevent all Growth of Sin, as they may 
discern it, in their Vicinities : and y e churches join with their pastors 
in sharpening the Ecclesiastical Discipline against the Scandals that may 
arise among them. 

"And all Civil Officers are hereby likewise called upon Vigorously to 
pursue y e execution of y e lawes, from Time to Time, Enacted against 
all Immoralities ; and in their several places, as well to make Diligent 
Enquiries and Impartial presentments of all offences against y e said lawes 
as to Dispense Justice equally, for no cause forbearing to do their office, 
according to the Oath of God, w ch is upon them, and unto this end, 
frequently to have their consultations in their several precincts, what 
may bee done by them to suppress any common evils. 

"Finally, All persons are hereby advised seriously to pursue the 
Designs of a general Conversion unto God, as y e best expedient for y e 
encouragement of o r Hopes, That Hee who hath shown us great & sore 
Troubles may Revive us ; and not leave us to perish in the convulsions 
which are now shaking a miserable World. 

"In the House^of Representatives. Read 10 th Decemb er . 1696 — a first 
and second time. Voted, and sent up for Concurrance. 

Penn Townsend Speaker. 

" Voted. That the aforesaid Declaration be published in the respec- 



Compare Calef : More Wonders of the Invisible World, p. 92. 

2 This passage in brackets was the " Streamer," etc. referred to by 
Chief Justice Sewall in his Diary, as having been added to the original 
" Bill "—not the passage quoted in Sewall Papers, I., 439 note. 



17 

tive Congregations within the province by the Ministers therein, and 
further That a proclamation issue from this Court requiring all Justices 
Constables Grand jury men Tythingmen, and all other civil officers to 
be faithful in the Execution of their respective offices; And That the 
Laws setting forth the dutys of the Respective officers afores' 1 be 
collected and inserted in the body of s' 1 proclamation. And that Ave 
hundred of s' 1 Laws and of the s (I Declarations be printed. 

Penn Townsend Speaker. 



"Dec 1 '. 11. 1G96. Read in Council and Voted a non-coucurrance. 

Is a Addington Sec'ry." 

This Bill, as it was called, on being sent to the Council, met with a 
prompt negative — the latter body decidedly resenting the movement by 
the House as an invasion of their prerogative. But after a sharp 
controversy between the two houses — another document much shorter, 
originating with the Council, and drawn up by Samuel Sewall, who had 
been one of the Judges in the Witch Trials — was duly passed — in which 
a solemn Fast was appointed for the 14th January, 1697. ' 

This paper has been printed and is doubtless familiar to you all. I 
will not read it here — but I will not hesitate to repeat my humble tribute 
of admiration for the character of its author. It was at this Fast that 
Chief Justice Sewall made his public confession of fault and repentance for 
his part in that bloody Assize of Witches at Salem— a signal example of 
the genuine old Puritan — a brilliant instance of that magnanimity which 
submits to just reproof without resentment, and that higher grace which 
is at once the sign and the blessing of repentance — that real Christian 
courage which could humiliate itself by confession. 

Samuel Sewall's voluntary confession before God and men of his sin 
in that thing, ought to be cherished as one of the moSt precious memo- 
rials of the history of Massachusetts. That solemn sad figure, handing 
the cpnfession to his minister " as he passed by " in the meeting-house, 
" and standing up at the reading of it, and bowing when finished ; in the 
afternoon " of that winter's day, is to me personally more beautiful and 
glorious than all the heroes of the Magnalia. 

[Mass. Archives, xi., 122.] 

"By the Hon ble the L 1 . Gov r . Council & Assembly of his Majty 8 Prov- 
ince of y e Massachusetts Bay in General Court Assembled. 



'Dec. 11. 1696. A Declaration containing Several Articles of Con- 
fession and Appointment of a Day of Publick Fast sent up from the 
House of Representatives with their vote thereon, and that a Procla- 
mation be issued to excite officers to their duty, was read, and Voted in 
the negative. 

A Bill for appointing a Public Fast upon "Thursday the 14th of January 
next, was Drawn up and voted and sent down." Council Becords, p. 
499. 

2 



18 

"Whereas the Auger of God is not yet turned away, bat his Hand is still 
stretched out against, his people, in manifold Judgments; particularly in 
drawing out to such a length the Troubles of Europe, by a perplexing 
War. And more especially, respecting ourselves in this Province, in 
that God is pleased still, to go on in diminishing our Substance, cutting 
short our Harvest ; blasting our most promising Undertakings ; more ways 
than one, Unsettling of us ; and by his more immediate Hand, snatching 
away many out of our Embraces by suddain & violent deaths; even at 
this time, when the Sword is devouring so many; both at home and 
abroad; and that after many Days of publick and Solemn addressing 
of Him. And altho, considering the many sins prevailing in the 
midst of us, we cannot but wonder at the Patience and Mercy modera- 
ting these Rebukes; yet we canot but also fear, that there's something 
still wanting to accompany our Supinations. And doubtless, there are 
some particular Sins, which God is angry with our Israel for, that have 
not been duely seen and resented by us, about which God expects to be 
sought, if ever He turn again our Captivity. 

"Wherefore its comand d & Apoi't fl that Thursday the Four- 
teenth of January next be observed as a Day of Prayer with Fasting 
throughout this Province ; strictly forbidding all Servile Labour thereon. 
That so all God's people may offer up fervent Supplications unto him 
for y e preservation and prosperity of his Maj^' 5 Royal person and Gov- 
ernm* and success to attend his Affaires both at home & abroad 
That all Iniquity may be taken away, which hath stirred God's holy 
Jealousie against this Land; that he would shew us what we know not, 
and help us wherein we have done amiss, to doe so no more: And 
especially, that whatever Mistakes, on either hand, have been fallen 
into, either by the body of this People, or any Orders of Men, referring 
to the late Tragedie raised amongst us by Satau and his Instruments, 
through the awfull Judgment of God; He would humble us therefore, 
and pardon all the Errors of his Servants and People that desire to Love 
his Name, and be attoned to His Land. That he would remove the 
Rod of the Wicked from off the Lot of the Righteous ; That He Would 
bring the American Heathen, and cause them to hear and obey his voice. 

" Dec. 11° 1696. Voted in Council and sent down for Concurrance. 

Is*. Addington, Sec'ry. 

" Decemb 1 17 th 1696. Voted a Concurrance, 

Penn Townsend, Speaker. 
" I Consent. 

W m . Stoughton." 

Endorsed : " Bill for a Fast Vot d Dec 1 11° 1696." 

When this Bill was first sent down to the House, on the 11th Decem- 
ber, 1696, a non-concurrence was promptly voted. The Diary of Chief 
Justice Sewall throws some light upon the details of the business, in 
which he says : "I doe not know that ever I saw the Council run upon 
with such a height of Rage before." Sewall Papers, I., 441. The 
following document belongs to this controversy between the two houses 
to which allusion has been made. 

[Mass. Archives, xi., 122.] 

Dec 1696, In the House of Representatives. Besolved, " That y e 
freedom of speech to debate, so to resolve & vote upon a free debate of 



11) 

any matters for the publick good of the Province without Consulting, 
advising or asking direction from the Hon eble Board Above is the 
Undoubted Right & Priviledge of this House. 

" Voted, That seeing the Minits of Council are from time to time to be 
laid before his Majesty and Council at home, for the preventing any 
Inconveniency to the Hon ,bl " Board above, This house shall not be 
Unwilling (always saving the priviledge of this House) to propose and 
concert by Message such things as shall be thought necessary in Pru- 
dence by this house, before they are brought to a vote. 

"That in y e late choice of a Comittee of Religion by this house y 
receiving their Report in y e Bill conteining an Enumeration of Sundry 
Evills to be Confessed on a Publick day of humiliation therein pposed 
to be ordered & appointed, & voting said Bill in this house and sending 
it up to y e Hon ,ble Council for their concurr c . This House 

" Protests, That these things were not transacted w th any designe 
to derogate from y e Preheminence of that hon lble Board, or to cast any 
disrespect thereon. 

"That in voting a non concurrence to y e Bill for a fast sent down to 
this house from y e Council, This house did not out of any hum r of 
Vyeing w th that hon rble Board vote a non-concurrance. 

<( proposed. That Both Bills for a fast, upon w oh the late debates have 
been, may be comited to y e Reverend Elders of this Town, and that out 
of both they be desired to draw a Bill for a fast and lay the same before 
the Court. 

" Decemb 1 : 15 th 1696. Read a first and Second time. 
(Endorsed) " Resolve Vote, & c ." 

A careful scrutiny of the original manuscript of the bill adopted re- 
vealed its history. When first sent down from the Council, it was 
immediately underwritten "Decemb 1 11th Voted a Non Concurrance. Penn 
Townsend, Speaker." After the matter was composed, the "11th" was 
altered to "17th" and the "Non" stricken out. 

I have still one more error to point out in the history of Witchcraft in 
Massachusetts. The statement has been constantly repeated, hitherto 
without correction, that some years after these melancholy trials, the 
General Court of Massachusetts passed an act reversing "the several 
convictions, judgments and attainders against the persons executed and 
several who were condemned, but not executed." An act of this sort has 
actually been printed and has found place and authority among recog- 
nized materials of history: but no such act ever became a law. 1 A 



1 The act referred to has not only been quoted as authority 
(Upham, ii., 465, 479;, but published at large in the Records of Salem 
Witchcraft, vol. ii., pp. 216-18. Mr. Chandler says: "a law was 
made reversing the attainders of those convicted, and making a grant 
for and in consideration of the losses sustained." Am. Grim. Trials, i., 
135. Mr. Poole says : " October 17, 1711, the General Court passed an 
act reversing 'the several convictions, judgments and attainders against 
the' persons executed, and several who were condemned but not 
executed, and declaring that [them] to be null and void." Witch- 
craft Delusion, etc. page 43, note 57, and again, in Memorial History of 



20 

private act of a similar character was passed in 1703, with reference to 
three of the surviving sufferers ; and a few years later — sundry appropri- 
ations were made from the public treasury in aid of families who had 
been ruined by this storm ; but none were adequate to the occasion— all 
were scanty and insufficient : and although the subject was revived from 
time to time during the next half-century, nothing else was done. 1 

It has not been my purpose, in the small collection of historical notes 
which I have thus had the honor to submit to you, to repeat the often 
told story of the Salem Witchcraft, or to recall any of the gloomy scenes 
of suspicion, persecution, prosecution, imprisonment, torture and death; 
which still glare out from the history of that period like flames from the 
pit. The main facts are familiar and they will never be forgotten. 

Nothing could be more dramatic, full of interest, marked characters 
and striking situations. Strong as the impression of those scenes must 
have been on those who lived at the time, no events of American Colo- 
nial History have more earnestly engaged the attention of men in later 
years : and while the events themselves can hardly be said to have been 
viewed in opposite lights, the characters of those who were actors in 
them have furnished themes of lasting controversy. 

Permit me to introduce here an illustration of this — in extracts from 
two writers both eminent and both belonging to Massachusetts. 

" Next to the fugitives whom Moses led out of Egypt, the little ship- 
load of outcasts who landed at Plymouth two centuries and a half ago 
are destined to influence the future of the world." This statement is the 
key-note, of a comparatively recent and sympathetic essay on "New 
England two Centuries ago," by James Russell Lowell. I quote it here 
simply as an introduction to the same writer's summary of affairs in the 
latter part of the seventeenth century, when the Witchcraft Delusions 
of that generation culminated in the Salem tragedies. Mr. Lowell 
says : " Till 1660 the Colony was ruled and mostly inhabited by English- 
men closely connected with the party dominant in the mother country, 
and with their minds broadened by having to deal with questions of 
state and European policy. After that time they sank rapidly into 
provincials, narrow in thought, in culture, in creed. Such a pedantic 
portent as Cotton Mather, would have been impossible in the first 
generation; he was the natural growth of the third, — the manifest judg- 



Boston, ii., 172: "Twenty years afterwards, when the General Court 
reversed the attainders of the persons executed in 1692," etc. Mr. 
Palfrey says: "Twenty years after, the General Court annulled the 
convictions and attainders, etc." Hist. iV". i?., iv., 117. And in another 
place : "All the attainders, twenty-two in number, were reversed, etc." 

Mr. Sibley says: "The General Court, 17 October, 1710, passed an 
act that 'the several convictions, judgments and attainders be, and 
hereby are, re-versed and declared to be null and void.'" Harv. Grach, ii., 
433. (Printed Dec. 17, 1880, and published since 30 May, 1881.) Other 
eminent authorities might be cited, but perhaps these will suffice. 

1 See Appendix— post. 



\ 






21 

•merit of God on a generation who thought " Words a saving substitute 
for Things." 

From this picture of the younger Mather, turn to that of the elder, 
•drawn by another hand, but not less true to the traditions in which it 
was trained. • 

Prof. Enoch Pond, in the " Lives of the Chief Fathers of New 
England," writing of the Father of Cotton Mather, says : 

"Among the stars in the right hand of the great Head of the Church, 
which glittered upon the Golden Candlesticks of primitive New Eng- 
land, none have shone with a brighter and more attractive lustre than 
Increase Mather." 

These views of the personal character of the Mathers, to whom history 
has assigned so conspicuous a place in the picture of Witchcraft in 
Massachusetts, furnish an illustration of the differences which still 
pervade the discussions of scholars concerning the period of which I 
have spoken. 

The extreme facility of belief that was displayed by these eminent 
men even in matters that were not deemed supernatural, can only be 
realized by those who have an intimate acquaintance with their works. 1 
Of this, as well the general historical question whether the tendencies of 
the age, the general spiritual movement and agitation of opinion in 
Massachusetts, had produced an exceptional amount of credulity during 
the half century or more before the occurrences at Salem in 1692— it is 
no part of my present purpose to enter into discussion. 

Out of differences such as those to which I have alluded and the 
•collision of critical judgments respecting men and events, the truth of 
history is ultimately to be developed. 

But as it is the essence of history to be true, the judicious student of 
its records will always be justified in every faithful attempt to correct 
errors, and to apply the strict principles of historical criticism to every 
•doubtful passage. Doubtless there may be some to whose minds (as 
Lord Bacon happily expressed it) "the mixture of a lie doth ever add 
pleasure." " It is not only the difficulty and labour which men take in 
finding out of truth; nor again that when it is found, it imposeth upon 
men's thoughts, that doth bring lies in favour; but a naturall, though 
corrupt love of the lie itself." But such as these do not belong to the 
School of History in our day. " There is nothing more modern than the 
critical spirit which dwells upon the difference between the minds of 



x Both the Mathers were ambitious of distinction as authorities on the 
subject of witchcraft, and proud of the recognition of Baxter and others. 
See the letter of Cradock to Increase Mather in the postscript to Cases of 
Conscience, London : 1690. I have myself read in the handwriting of 
Cotton Mather his own record of an interview with an angel of God. It 
was written in Latin in one of his Diaries with the following remarkable 
marginal note, giving the reason for his veiling it in the obscurity of a 
learned language — " Hcec scribo Latine, ne chara mea conjux, has chartas 
•aliquando inspiciens, intelligat " / 



22 

men in one age and another; which endeavours to make each age its 
own interpreter, and judge what it did or produced by a relative 
standard." 

Many are the errors produced by the want of this historical feeling 
and leading to an entire misunderstanding of the nature of events. We 
may be keenly sensible of the strange contrasts in human nature, as we 
endeavor to scrutinize the motives of the chief actors, the natural 
leaders of the people and councillors of the government; and it is easy 
for us who read the history of that day in the light of those which have 
followed it, to perceive that these men erred : but we should hesitate 
before judging the actors of 1692 as we would judge our contemporaries. 



APPENDIX. 

Anno R R ffi Annjs Anglie &c. Secundo. 
Province of the 
Massachusetts Bay. 

An Act for } j § £ reversing the 
Attainder of Abigail j J ' ' i Faulkner & others. 



Whereas Abigail Faulkner, wife of Francis Faulkner of Andover in 
the County of Essex, Sarah Wardel Wife of Samuel Wardel of the same 
place, Elizabeth Procter, Wife of John Procter of Salem Village within 
the said County. In the Court of Oyer and Terminer and Goal Delivery 
holdenat Salem Village within the said County of Essex in the year One 
Thousand Six hundred ninety two, were arraigned convicted and 
attainted of Felony for practising Witchcraft, who have now humbly 
petitioned this Court, That the said Attainders may be set aside and 
made void. — 

Wherefore be it Declared & Enacted by his Excellency the Governour 
Council and Representatives in General Court Assembled, and by the 
Authority of the same, — 

That the said Several convictions, Judgements and Attainders of the 
said Abigail Faulkner, Sarah Wardel, Elizabeth Procter and every of 
them be, and are repealed, reversed, made and declared null and void to 
all intents, constructions and purposes whatsoever; as if no such 
convictions, Judgements or Attainders had ever been had or given. 
And that no Corruption of blood, pains, penalties or Forfeitures of 
Goods or Chattels be by the said convictions and Attainders or any of 
them incurred. But that the said persons and every of them be and 
hereby are reinstated in their just Credit and reputation Any Law, 
usage or custom to the contrary notwithstanding 

Boston July the 26 th 1703. This Bill haveing been read three several 
times in the House of Representatives— Pass'd to be Enacted 

Jam 8 . Converse Speaker,— 

This Bill having been read three several times in Council, Pass'd to be 
Enacted July 27 th Is a . Addington Sec'ry. — 

Die prsedict. By his Excellency the Governour 

I Consent to the Enacting of this Bill 

J. Dudley. 

The foregoing act had a curious history, which will appear in part 
from the document which follows — reproduced from the original. 



23 

[Mass. Archives, cxxxv., 122-123.] 
In the House of JRepresentatives, July 20th, 1703 

In answer to the petitions of Abigail Faulkner, and sundry of the 
Inhabitants of Andover, in the behalf of sundry persons in and late of s a 
Town, & elsewhere, who in the year 1692 were Indicted, accused, and 
Condemned, & many of them executed for the crime of Felany by witch- 
craft. And whereas it is Conceived by many worthy and pious Persons 
that the Evidence given against [many of] the s' 1 Condemned persons 
was weak and insufficient, as to Taking away the lives of sundry so 
condemned, &c. il Wherefore it is thought meet and it is hereby 

Ordered, That a Bill be drawn up for Preventing the like Procedure 
for the future, and that no Spectre Evidence may be hereafter accounted 
valid, or sufficient to take away the life or good name of any Person or 
Persons within this Province, and that the Infamy, and Reproach, cast 
on the names, and Posterity of the s fl accused, and condemned Persons 
may in some measure be Roll'd away. 

Sent up for concurrence 

Jam 8 . Converse, Speaker. 

(Endorsed) Order for bringing in a bill to reverse the attainder of 
Abig a . Faulkner, &c a of witchcraft. 

The document thus sent to the Council did not receive its sanction 
without some modifications. The words "many of" inserted above in 
brackets appear as an addition to the original written in the margin by 
the Secretary of the Council — Addington : and instead of the resolution 
11 ordered" etc. in the paper as it emanated from the House, the follow- 
ing was substituted, appearing in the handwriting of Governor Dudley 
himself, on a separate paper, viz. : 

Ordered, " That a bill be brought in to acquit Mary (sic) Falkner and 
the other present petitioners severally of the penaltys to which they are 
lyable upon the said Convictions and Judgments in the said Courts and 
Estate them in their just Credit and reputation as if no such Judgment 
had been had. 

" In Council, July 21 th , 1703, agreed to. Die pdict. Agreed to." 

The records indicate that this action originated with the Council, but 
this document shows that it was founded on the previous motion of the 
House. The latter branch agreed to the order of the Council on the 
same day, 21 July, 1703, and the bill was read a first and second time 
on the 22d, and on the 23d a third time and passed and sent down for 
concurrence. *On the 27th, the Engrossed Bill for reversing the 
Attainders, & c . passed in the House of Representatives, was read and 
agreed to be enacted. Council Becords. 

This private act was the only law of the kind which can be found in 
all the legislation of Massachusetts. 

A few years later, the "cry of the oppressed" seems to have reached 
the ears of those in authority. Numerous petitions were sent in and in 
a sermon before the General Assembly, Nov. 3d, 1709, Cotton Mather 
himself delivered the following remarkable utterances : 



24 

"In two or three too Memorable Days of Temptation that have been 
upon us, there have been Errors committed. You are always ready to 
Declare unto all the World, That you Disapprove those Errors. You are 
willing to inform all Mankind with your DECLARATIONS : * 

That no man may be Persecuted, because he is Conscienciously not of the 
same Religious Opinions, with those that are uppermost. 

And ; 'That Persons are not to be judg'd confederates with Evil Spirits, 
meerly because the Evil Spirits do make Possessed People cry out upon them. 

Could any thing be proposed further, by way of Reparation, [Besides 
the General Day of Humiliation, which was appointed and observed 
thro' the Province, to bewayl the Errors of our Dark time, some years 
ago :] You would be willing to hearken to it." 

The following document shows what was .done, in the following year, 
etc. 

[Mass. Archives : cxxxv. 169.] 

To y e Honrd Ge?ir 11 Court Sitting. 

We whose names are subscribed, In Obedience to yo T Hon rs Act at 
a Court held y e vlt of May 1710: for our Inserting y e Names of y e 
seuerall psons who were Condemned for witchcraft in y e year 1692. & 
of y e damages they susteined by their prosecution. 

Being mett at Salem y e 13 th Sep*. 1710. for y e Ends aforesaid upon 
Examination of y e Records of y e seuerall psons Condemned : Humbly 
offer to yo r Hon vs . the Names as Follow to be Inserted for y e Reuersing 
of their Attainders : 

t s T 

Elizabeth How; Georg Jacob, Mary Easty, Mary 

A W S 

Parker, M r George Burroughs : Giles Core & his wife. 

s s s A 

Rebeccah Nurse. John Willard. Sarah Good. Martha Car- 

A ST 

rier, Samuell Wardell. John Procter : Sarah Wild 

s AT 

M ls Mary Bradbury. Abigail Falknor. Abigail Hobs. 

A ABA 

Ann Foster. Rebeccah Earns, Dorcas Hoar. Mary Post 

A 

Mary Lacey. 1 



Condemned & 
not Executed 



And haueing heard y e Seuerall Demaunds of y e Damages of y e afores d 
psons & those in their behalf. & upon Conference haue soe Moderated 
their Respectiue demaunds y* we doubt not but y* they will be Readily 
Comply d w tk by yo 1 Hon's which Respectiue demaunds are as follow. 
Elizabeth How 12£ Georg Jacob. 79£. Mary Easty. 20£. Mary Parker. 
8£. M r Georg Burroughs. 50£. Giles Core. & Martha Core his wife 
21£ Rebeccah Nurse 25£. John Willard 20£. Sarah Good. 30£ Martha 
Carrier. 7£ 6s. Samuell Wardell & Sarah his wife 36£ 15 s . John Procter, 
& Procter his wife 150£ Sarah Wild. 14£. M vs Mary Bradbury, 

20£ Abigail Falkner 20£ Abigail Hobs. 10£. Ann Foster. 6£. 10 s . Rebecca 



x The letters above lines appear to refer to towns where the persons 
belonged: T, Topsfleld ; S, Salem, and one Salisbury; A, Andover; 
W, Wells; B, Beverlv. 



25 

Earns. 10£ Dorcas Hoar, 21£ 17 s . Mary Post. 8£ 14 a . Mary Lacey. 8£ 10 3 
the whole amounting unto. 578£ 12 8 

Yo r Hon's most Humble Serv ts 

John Appleton 
Thomas Noyes 
John Burrill 
Neh : Jewett 

Octo 1 . 23: 1711 Read, and accepted in the House of 
Representatives Sent up for Concurrence 

John Burrill Speaker 

Oct 26, 1711 

In Council Read and Concurred 

Is a : Addington Secr'y 

[On same paper, but stricken out.] 

Y r Acco 1 of yo r Seruants. Charges £ 

3 dayes a peic otv selues & horses 4.0.0 

Entertainment at Salem, M 1 Pratts : 1-3-0 

Majo r Sewals attendance & sending notifications to all con- 
cerned 1-0-0 



From this document it appears that a Committee was appointed early 
in 1710 on the subject. They met at Salem in September of that year 
and concluded their labors after a session of three days. Their report 
was not made to the same General Court by which they were appointed, 
but that of the next political year; when it was read and accepted in the 
House of Representatives, sent up and concurred in by the Council. No 
law was enacted in either of those years in accordance with the ideas 
suggested, and although some payments of money appear to have been 
made to various parties interested — it will hardly be maintained that 
judgments of attainder could be reversed by the simple acceptance of 
the report of a Committee by any legislative body or bodies whatever. 

The subsequent action of the legislature is indicated by the following- 
collections from their journals which I have made with great care. 

Legislative Proceedings, etc. 



1717. 20 June. A Petition of Philip English of Salem, praying Consid- 
eration and allowance for a great part of his Estate, taken from him (as 
was said) by lawful authority in the late sorrowful time of the Witch- 
craft. Sent down from the Board. Read there. Read. 

1717. 20 November. A Petition of Philip English, praying as entered 
the 20 th of June last, Read again, and Ordered, That Mr. Speaker Burril, 



26 

Mr. Isaiah Tay and Jonathan Kemington, Esqrs; with such as the 
Honourable Board shall appoint, be a Committee to consider of the said 
Petition and all the Papers relating thereto, and report what they think 
proper to be done in answer thereto, to this Court at their next Session. 
Sent up for Concurrence. 

1718. 7 th February. The Petition of Philip English which was pass'd 
upon in this House the 20th of November last. Sent down from the 
Board pass'd on there, viz : In Council, Feb. 7, 1717. Ordered, That the 
Committee be continued, and that they make report as above at the 
Session of this Court in May next. Sent down for Concurrence. Read 
and Concurred. 

1718. July 3. The Petition of Philip English pass'd upon in this House 
the 7 th of February last. Sent down from the Board pass'd on there, 
viz : In Council, July 3, 1718. Ordered that the Committee on this 
Petition be continued, and that they make Report to this Court at their 
Session in Autumn next. Sent down for Concurrence. Read and Con- 
curred. 

1718. November 8. The Report of the Committee of both Houses, 
continued the 3 d of July last, on the Petition of Philip English. Sent 
down from the Board pass'd on there, and is as follows, viz. In obedi- 
ence to the Order within mentioned, having had several Meetings on the 
Affair at which the Petitioner, and sundry Evidences have given their 
Attendance, & were heard & Examined, and the Petition, & the Papers 
relating thereto with the Representation of the Damage & Loss being 
duly consicler'd, the Committee are humbly of Opinion, It is reasonable 
upon the whole that the Petitioner be allowed & paid out of the Publick 
Treasury Two Hundred Pounds in full Satisfaction for what he may 
have . sustained and suffered as set forth in his Petition, Account & 
Papers, which is humbly submitted by Thomas Fitch per Order of the 
Committee. In Council, Novemb. 8th, 1718. Read & Accepted. Sent 
down for Concurrence. 

1718. November 10. The Report of the Committee on the Petition of 
Philip English, entered the 8 th Currant. Read again. And Voted a 
Concurrence with the Board thereon. 

1718. November 11. An Accompt of the Expenses of the Committee 
on Mr. Philip English's Affair, amounting to l 1 12 s 2 d laid before the 
House for allowance. 

Besolved, that the Sum of Thirty Two Shillings and Two Pence be 
allowed and paid out of the Publick Treasury, to the Honourable Thomas 
Fitch, Esq; Chair-man of the said Committee, to Discharge the said 
Accompt. Sent up for Concurrence. 

June 27. 1723. ' k A Petition of Thomas Bich of Salem, only Surviving 
Child of Martha Corey, alias Martha Bich of Salem deceased, praying the 
Compassionate Consideration and Commisseration of this Court for the 
great Losses the Petitioner met with in the Year 1692, for the Reasons 
in said Petition at large Enumerated, &c. Read, and Committed to the 
Committee for Petitions / 

And Ordered, That Capt. Epes be added to the Committee for the 
Consideration of this Petition." 

June 29. 1723. " On the Petition of Tnomas Bich, The Committee 
reported, That in consideration of the Loss the Petitioner might sustain 
by being deprived of the Goods mentioned in the Petition together with 
the many Illegal Actions of the Sheriff and his Officers respecting the 
Persons charged as Witches, They are humbly of Opinion That the Sum 
of £50 be allowed and paid out of the Publick Treasury to the Petitioner 
Thomas Bich, in full Reco.npence of what Damage might accrue to him 
thereby. 

Read and accepted. And accordingly, Besolved, That the Sum of Fifty 






27 • 

Pounds be allowed and paid out of the Publick Treasury to the Petitioner 
Thomas Bich, in full satisfaction for the Losses he may have sustained 
as at large set forth in the Petition. 

Sent up for Concurrence." 

The next sharp reminder of their neglected duty came from the pulpit. 

Rev. Israel Loring, Pastor of a Church in Sudbury, in his Election 
Sermon, May 25th, 1737, on the Duty of an Apostatizing People to 
remember from whence they are fallen, and repent, and do their first 
Works, revived the subject with boldness and vigor. Setting forth 
ways and means by which civil rulers may set forward the work of 
reformation among a people and promote the Interest of Religion, after 
referring to a growing neglect of public worship and increasing sin of 
drunkenness, he proceeds : — 

"There is one Thing more which I would recommend to the serious 
Consideration of this Great and General Court; and that is, Whether 
there is not a great Duty lying upon us, respecting the Transactions of 
the Year 1692, when not only many Persons were taken off by the Hand 
of publick Justice for the supposed crime of Witchcraft; but thuir 
Estates also ruined, and their Families impoverished. None dispute the 
Integrity of those, who were then concerned to act and judge most in 
those matters. But it was a dark Day with them; they walk'd in the 
Clouds, and could not clearly see their way, as to the Mystery of 
Iniquity then working. All orders of Persons have since seen Reason 
to condemn the Rules of the whole Process as fallacious and insufficient 
to distinguish the Guilty from the Innocent. 1 

What the Sense even of our Predecessors, and those who were then 
upon the Stage of Action was, in relation to this Affair, may be in some 
measure learned from a Proclamation for a General Fast, emitted Decemb. 
17, 1696, four Years after; in which is contained this Direction for 
publick Prayers, viz. ' that God would shew us what we know not, and 
help us wherein we have done amiss, to do so no more : And especially 
that whatever Mistakes on either Hand have been fallen into, either by 
the body of this People, or any order of Men, referring to the late 
Tragedy raised by Satan and his Instruments, thro' the awful Judgments 
of God : He would humble us therefor, and pardon all the Errors of his 
Servants and People that desire to love his Name; and be atoned to his 
Land.' 

u Now tho' the loss of Parents cannot be made up to their surviving 
Posterity, yet their Estates may; And the Question is (if it be not 
beyond all Question) whether a Restitution is not due from the Publick 
to them, and we are not bound in Justice to make it. Hereby Infamy 
may be taken off from the Names and Memory of such as were Executed, 
and who it may be did not in the least deserve it ; as well as a Reparation 
made to their children for the Injuries done them; wuo remain to this 
Day among us in mean, low and abject circumstances. It is now 
something more than forty Years since these sad Things were done 
among us ; but length of time is no Argument that God is not at this 
Day, among other Things, contending with us for these; since he 
punished Israel with Famine three Years for a Sin of misguided zeal 
committed forty Years before that, 2 Sam. xxi. 1,2." sermon, etc., pp. 
51-53. 

" ^ee the Rev. Mr. Hale's accurate and judicious Discourse concern- 
ing Witchcraft; shewing how Persons guilty of that Crime may be 
convicted ; and in which the Means used for their discovery are discussed 
both negatively and affirmatively, according to Scripture and Expe- 
rience." 



28 

Although the earnest words and suggestions of this pious clergyman 
■do not appear to have aroused any active sympathy in the legislature 
whose members he addressed — a movement was set on foot in the 
following year, when a Committee of the House of Representatives was 
appointed — whose origin appears in the subjoined letter, and its 
enclosure r 1 

The land-fever was perhaps at its height in that period of Massachu- 
setts history, and " granting a township " the most natural expression 
which the legislature could give of justice or gratitude or both. 

There is a singular coincidence to be noted here in considering the 
action of the legislature, and the movements of those who had influence 
with the authorities. The proposition to make restitution to the victims 
-of Witchcraft was instantly followed by an effort to reward the Mather 
family ; and it is difficult to avoid the reflection that the partisans of 
that family may have been stimulated to action by the proposal to do 
some justice, though late, to the memories of the sufferers, and to 
gratify their descendants by a substantial recognition. Certainly the 
names of the Mathers have been at all times inseparably connected 
with the history of the Witchcraft Delusions of Massachusetts. 



x This letter was found by William P. Upham, Esq., of Salem, among 
some miscellaneous papers filed with the Town Records of that City. 
John Higginson was Town Clerk in 1738. Major Samuel Sewall and 
Mitchell Sewall were sons of Stephen Sewall, Clerk of the Courts in 
the Witchcraft trials. 

Boston Dec. 9, 1738. 
Gent 11 . 

Inclosed is a vote of ye house passed yesterday I think unani- 
mously relating to ye Dark affair in 1692, they being very desirous of 
making restitution by Granting a Township or paying in money — & I am- 
•directed by ye Comittee to desire you two Gentlemen would immediate- 
ly look over those Records & give us an Ace*, who was ye Sufferers & by 
inquiring also who has Rec d . any money particularly how much Mr. 
English has Rec d . & whether considerable yet due to his heirs. We 
pray you would be speedy & earnest in your inquiries & give us an ace 1 , 
as soon as possible because we would fain have something done before 
ye Court rises — You will be not only doing a great good but very 
much oblige ye whole Court & particularly 

Yo r . humb. Serv 1 . 

Sam 1 . Sewall 
By order of ye Comittee. 
Mitchel Sewall > p ["Salem 1 

<& Jn°. Higginson 5 M " L>alem.j 

[Enclosure:] In the House of Rep™ Dec. 8, 1738. 

On a motion made and seconded by divers Members Ordered that 
Maj.' 1 " Sewall, Mr. Fairfield. Mr. Norton and Mr. Danforth be a Com tee to 
get the best Information they can into the circumstances of the persons 
■& families who suffered in the Calamity of the times in & about the year 
1692, and have not received any Restitution or Reparation for their 
Losses & Misfortunes ; that the Committee lay the same before the 
Court as soon as may be. 



29 

1738, December 12. A Memorial and Petition of the Keverend Mr. 
Samuel Mather of Boston, Clerk, setting forth the publick and eminent 
Services of his venerable and honoured Grandfather and Father in the 
Cause and Interest of the Province in many Instances and on Divers 
Occasions, as particularly therein enumerated, both in civil and religious 
respects, praying this Court would please to make him an allowance for 
the said Services, that so he the Memorialist may be excited and 
encouraged to Apologize for the Liberties of New England, and thereby 
will arise some standing and perpetual Memorial of the good deeds of 
his worthy Ancestors, and the Gratitude of their Country for them. 
Read and Ordered, that the Petition be considered on Friday the 15th 
current. 

December 20. The Petition was read again with another Petition of 
sundry others of the Descendants of the Petitioner's Grandfather 
presented the last Session, and Ordered, that John Bead and Bichard 
Saltonstall, Esqs. and Mr. Sumner, be a Committee to inquire iuto the 
Facts and Services therein mentioned, and Report what in their 
Opinion may be proper for the Court to do therein. 

December 29. John Bead, Esq, from the Committee appointed the 
20th current on the Petition of the Rev. Mr. Samuel Mather, made the 
following Report : viz : 

The Committee upon the Petition of the Reverend Mr. Samuel 
Mather, considering that the Reverend Dr. Increase Mather not only 
served his particular Church as their Minister faithfully and the College 
as their President with Honour, but the Province as an Agent in 
procuring the present Charter, to the good acceptance of his Country; 
and that his Son the Rev. Dr. Cotton Mather and grandson the Peti- 
tioner his successor in the same Church and Ministry have not behaved 
themselves unworthy of such an Ancestor, and have never had one Foot 
of Land granted to either of them as we can learn, are therefore of 
Opinion that notwithstanding the Gratification of two hundred pounds 
given him as alledged it may be proper for this Court to grant a Farm 
of five hundred Acres of the unappropriated Lands of this Province to 
the Heirs of the said Dr. Increase Mather, as a Memorial of his personal 
Worth and publick Services, and report accordingly; which was read 
and the Question was put, Whether the Beport be accepted ? It passed in 
the Negative, and Ordered, that the Petition lie on the table. 

1739, 22 June. A Petition of the Rev. Mr. Samuel Mather, praying 
the Consideration of the Court on Account of the public and extraordi- 
nary Services of his Ancestors, as entered the 12th and 20th of December 
last; and a Petition of Maria Fifield, Elizabeth Byles, and others, Heirs 
of Dr. Increase Mather, praying the Consideration of the Court on 
account of their Father's publick Services. 

Read, and the question was put, Whether the Petitions shall be 
committed ? It passed in the Negative. 

Then the Question was put, Whether any Grant shall be made the 
Petitioners ? It passed in the Negative, and Ordered, That the Petitions 
be dismissed. 

1738-9. January 26. " Ordered, that Benjamin Browne, Esq. and 
Captain Timothy Johnson, be added to the Committee appointed the 
sixth current, 1 to get the best Information they could into the circum- 
stances of the Persons and Families who suffered in the Calamity of the 
Times in and about 1692, and have not received any Restitution or 
Reparation for their Losses and Misfortunes." 

1739. June 30. On a motion made and seconded by divers members, 



*I have found no such proceeding at that date : perhaps this date was 
an error, as the committee was appointed on the 8th December. 



i 



30 

Ordered, That the Committee to consider the Case of the Sufferers in the 
troublesome Times Anno 1692, be allowed till the next Fall Session to 
report thereon. 

1789-40. January .5. The Committee appointed by the House of 
Representatives to inquire and set the best Information they could into 
the Circumstances of the Persons and Families who suffered in the* 
Calamity of the Times in or about the Year sixteen Hundred Ninety two, 
and have not received any Restitution or Reparation for their Losses 
and Misfortunes, & c . reported thereon. 

Read and Ordered, That the Consideration thereof be referred to the 
next May Session, that the Committee may more fully inform themselves 
concerning that Affair. 

The matter does not seem to have been taken up at the May session, 
but at the third session of the same Legislature, Governor Belcher 
devoted a paragraph of his Speech to it, and added (for the first time) 
a reference to the sufferings of the Quakers as entitling them also to 
consideration in the way of Reparation and Restitution. 

Sabbati Die 22 Novembris, A. D. 1740, His Excellency's Speech was 
read, and is as follows, viz. 

(Extract.) "This Legislature have often honoured themselves in a 
kind and generous Remembrance of such Families, and of the Posterities 
of such as have been sufferers, either in their Persons or Estates, for, or 
by the Government, of which the publick Records will give you many 
Instances ; I should therefore be glad, there might be a Committee 
appointed by this Court, to inquire into the Sufferings of the People 
called Quakers, in the early Days of this Country, as also, into the 
Descendants of such Families, as were in a manner ruined, in the 
mistaken Management of the terrible Affair, called Witchcraft: I really 
think, there is something incumbent on this Government to be done, for 
retrieving the Estates, and Reputations of the Posterities of the unhappy 
Families, that so suffered, and the doing it (tho' so long afterwards) 
would, doubtless, be acceptable to Almighty GOD, and would reflect 
Honour upon the present Legislature. 

Oldmixon, in the preface to the 2 d . Ed 11 . (1741) of his British Empire 
in America, refers to this subject as follows : 

"The great Foible of the New England History is the Story of the 
Witches, which Mr. Neal has in no manner countenanced; and New- 
England must be no more charged with it, since the Assembly there 
have now under Consideration, by the recommendation of Governor 
Belcher, the Means of giving Satisfaction to the Posterity of the 
Sufferers, by a Mistake, as it is called; as also to those of the Quakers, 
Fellow Sufferers by a Mistake alike fatal. This proceeding of Governor 
Belcher and the Assembly has set the Reputation of this Colony right, 
in the Opinion of all good Britons and good Protestants." p. ix. 

1740, December 5th. Voted, that Col. Brown, Mr. Fairfield and Capt. 
Johnson, with such as shall be joined by the Honorable Board, be a 
Committee to consider that Paragraph in his Excellency's Speech, 
relating to the People called Quakers and the Affair called Witchcraft, 
and report what they judge proper for this Court to do thereon. Sent 
up for concurrence. 

1741. April 25. John Jeffries, Esq. brought down a vote of Council, 
viz: In Council, April 25th, 1741, Voted, That the Committee appointed 
the fifth of December last, to consider of that paragraph of His 



31 

Excellency's Speech relating to the Quakers, and the affair called Witch- 
craft, do make their report at the next May Session. Sent down for 
Concurrence. Read and Concur'd. 

1741. July 28. Voted, That Mr. dishing, Mr. Fairfield, Major Osgood, 
Capt. Cheevers, and Capt. Lawton, with such as shall he joined by the 
Honorable Board, be a Committee to enquire who were formerly 
Sufferers as Quakers, or on Account of Witchcraft, and what Satisfaction 
has been made by this Court to such Sufferers, and report what in their 
Judgment may be proper to do thereon. Sent up for Concurrence. 

1743. l,t June. Voted, That Capt. Choate, Mr. Gardner, and Col. 
JEJpes, with such as the Honorable Board shall appoint, be a Committee 
to inquire who were formerly Sufferers, as Quakers, or on Account of 
Witchcraft ; and what satisfaetion has been made by this Court to such 
Sufferers; and report what in their Judgment may be proper to do 
thereon. Sent up for Concurrence. 

1749. June 17. A Memorial of Thomas Newman, Abia Holbrook, Jun. 
and Elias Thomas, Agents for their respective Relatives, the surviving 
Children and Grand-Children of George Burroughs, formerly of Falmouth, 
in the County of York, Clerk, deceased; representing the uuparallel'd 
Persecutions and Sufferings of their said Ancestor, and praying some 
Recompenee for the great Losses sustained in that unhappy Affair. 

Read and Ordered, That Mr. Speaker, [Joseph Dwighi, Esq.] Mr. 
Hubbard, Col. Choate, Mr. Daniel Fierce, and Thomas Foster, Esq. with 
such as the Honourable Board shall join, be a Committee to take the 
case of the Memorialists under Consideration, and report what they 
judge proper for this Court to do thereon. Sent up for Concurrence. 

"In Council, Read & Concurred & Samuel Dan forth, John Quincy, 
Ezekiel Cheever, & John Otis, Esq' s are joined in the affair." 

[Mass. Archives, exxxv., 172.] 

To His Honour Spencer Phipps Esq ,e . Lieutenant Governor and 
Commander in Chief in and over his Majesty's Province of the Massa- 
chusetts Bay in New England, and to the Honourable the Council and 
the Honourable the House of Representatives in General Court 
assembled. 

The Memorial of Thomas Newman, Abia Holbrook and Elias 
Thomas agents for their respective relatives, the surviving children and 
Grandchildren of George Burroughs formerly of Falmouth in the County 
of York and province aforesaid, Clerk, deceased. As a Supplement to 
the prayer of their Memorial and petition humbly presented to His 
Excellency Governor Shirley and the Honourable His Majesty's Council, 
and this Honourable House of Representatives, on the thirty first day 
of May last. 

Most humbly suggesteth: 

That their said Memorial and petition setting forth the awful and 
miserable condition of the unhappy children and descendants of the 
Reverend M 1 . George Burroughs who as therein set forth had his blood 
shed, and was one of the most deplorable victims cut off in the fatal 
catastrophe in the year 1692.— Was by the Honourable Court referred to 
the Consideration of a Committee of both Houses in June last to report 
what might be proper for the Court to act thereupon, but so it seems it 
hath fell out that the Honourable M 1 . Danforth Chairman of the said 
Committee hath not as yet called them together so much as once to act 
thereon even to this day, as some of the Honourable Committee them- 
selves were pleased with real concern to signify to your said petitioners. 

Your Memorialists therefore most humbly supplicate (they having 
been put to great expense already) that their said Memorial and petition 
may be again brought forward, Read and Acted upon before the final 




32 

Rising of this Court, that so a stop may be put to the cry of the long 
oppressed sufferers. 

And your Memorialists as in Duty bound shall ever pray &c. 

Thomas Newman 
Boston March 28. 1750. Abia Holbrook jun/ 

Elias Thomas 

In the House of Representatives March 28, 1750. Read and ordered 
that the Committee within referred to, be directed to sit forthwith, 
consider the petition to them committed and report as soon as may be. 

Sent up for concurrence 

Thomas Hubbard Spk v pro Tempore. 

The entry on the Journal of the House is varied in its mode of 
expression, as follows : 

1750. March 28. ''Ordered, That the Committee of both Houses 
appointed in June last, to consider the Petition of Thomas Newman and 
others, be directed to sit forthwith, and report as soon as may be. Sent 
up for Concurrence." 

On the next day, March 29, 1750, it was further "Ordered, That Major 
Lawrence and Nathanael Oliver, Esqrs ; be of the Committee on the 
Petition of Thomas Newman and others, in the Room of Joseph Dwight 
and John Choate, Esqrs. who are absent." 

But nothing was done and '* the cry of the long oppressed Sufferers '* 
seems to have been stifled : at any rate it was heard no more in the high 
places of legislation. 



027 280 020 



